


Pumpkin Head

by RydenWayWeekes



Category: Bandom, Panic! at the Disco, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Young Veins
Genre: Baby Panic!, Brendon sucks at carving pumpkins, Didn't really turn out how I thought, Halloween, M/M, Pumpkin carving, Pumpkins, still good i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 18:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5059513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RydenWayWeekes/pseuds/RydenWayWeekes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s no use, this is taking forever!” Brendon sighs, scooping another meager fistful of pumpkin out and getting it all over the table in the process. “You totally cheated and gave me the pumpkin with the most insides,” he pouted.</p><p>“You picked your own pumpkin,” Ryan replied coolly, taking a sip from a glass of water and seating back on the table.</p><p>“Then you tricked me into it.”</p><p>“You’re the one who decided who was doing which one. I don’t even like pumpkins!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pumpkin Head

*******

“My hands are gross,” Brendon frowns holding his left hand covered in pumpkin guts up to Ryan’s face.

He ducks out of the way, finishing scooping the insides of his own pumpkin into the heaping bowl set between them on the table. “Yes, that is an unfortunate byproduct of this,” he makes a face at his own orange-dotted hands and stands up to rinse them in the sink. “But if you stop whining and do it fast, you can wash it off.”

“It’s no use, this is taking forever!” Brendon sighs, scooping another meager fistful of pumpkin out and getting it all over the table in the process. “You totally cheated and gave me the pumpkin with the most insides,” he pouted.

“You picked your own pumpkin,” Ryan replied coolly, taking a sip from a glass of water and seating back on the table.

“Then you tricked me into it.”

“You’re the one who decided who was doing which one. I don’t even like pumpkins!”

“You know…” Brendon fluttered his eyelashes, looking at the older boy with the shinning eyes that helped him get his way so many times in the past. “You could always be the greatest pal and finish scooping my pumpkin for me”

Ryan scrunched his nose. “Dude, I quite literally just washed my hands off pumpkin guts. Did you not see that? I think you may need to renew the prescription on your glasses.”

“The needs of the Brendon outweigh the needs of the few or the one,” Brendon reaches for Ryan with his pumpkin-strewn hand in a monster fashion. Ryan just gives him a level look.

“Star Trek. Really? Not only was that self-centered but a gross misreplication of Spock’s dying words,” the older boy shakes his head, stabbing his pumpkin with the carving knife in an area he’s meant to cut out. “I thought you knew better”

Brendon continued to sluggishly scoop out the seeds and pulp in more or less silence.

*******

“This is too fucking hard!” he crossed his arms over his shoulder and leaned back on the rickety chair.

“I told you I could do Sally if you wanted to do Jack, but you said it was fine,” Ryan replied without looking up from where he was making a careful cut on his own pumpkin.

“And I stand by that decision,” Brendon pointed at the older one with his tiny carving knife. “I just wish Sally wasn’t so difficult! How am I supposed to do this? If I cut along the lines, the whole things will come apart or be too fragile to stand up-”

“Scratch it.”

“What?”

“I told you to scratch some of the features. That way it makes a contrast from the actual skin, without debilitating the structure.”

“Yeah, well not everyone has the same artistic abilities, Ross” Brendon sulks. “You didn’t even want to do this in the first place!”

“What can I say?” Ryan shows, brushing some detritus of pumpkin off. “It grew on me. Quit complaining, you were the one trying to coerce Brent and Spencer into doing this too. I’m just the only one that took the bait.”

“Well, Brent and Spencer were doing it with their families. I didn’t want to be the only one not to do it” Brendon’s voice suddenly lost all the whine from it. “Besides, they say it’s bad luck to break tradition,” he said, voice growing with anger and he stabbed his carving knife haphazardly into his pumpkin.

“Who’s ‘They’?” Ryan raised an eyebrow.

“Just They, Okay?” Brendon glared at him.

“Fine, Dr Seuss” Ryan tried to laugh it off, turning his attention back to his almost finished pumpkin.

“Whatever,” Brendon pushed his chair away from the table and stood up, glaring at his poor pumpkin like it had personally offended him. “You can throw mine out. Or eat it. Use it as a soccer ball, I don’t care. I’m going for a walk,” he made a beeline for the door, barely hearing Ryan call out after him.

“Hey, I’m not your maid!”

*******

Brendon sighed softly as he turned the key in the lock to the shitty apartment he and Ryan unofficially shared most of the time. He hated that thinking about his family got him worked up sometimes. He pushed the rickety door and the waiting apology in his mouth died when he saw Ryan fast asleep on the couch in front of him. He ruffled the sleeping boy’s hair on his way to the kitchen, eyes widening in a mix of joy and surprise at the two pumpkins waiting for him in the coffee table. They were both smoothly finished, even though one had more nicks and cuts to it, they were accentuated rather than hidden and turned into Sally’s scars and stitches. Brendon didn’t even know how it was done, didn’t care, but Ryan had managed to turn his mess of a pumpkin into something actually good. The underlying analogy wasn’t entirely lost on him as he glanced back at the dozing boy on his couch.


End file.
